Saving recess: How much time should today's students get?

After 16 years of teaching, Ami S. Edgren knows the benefits of giving her fourth graders a movement break every now and then. Heck, sometimes she needs one, too.

"We're talking about kids who are 9 or 10 years old," she said Friday while preparing for the start of school at Floral Street School in Shrewsbury. "It's hard for me to sit still all day."

So in addition to the 15 minutes of recess her students get in the morning and the 15 minutes at lunchtime, she occasionally has JAMs, short for "just a minute." Kids march or run in place or do burpees (combinations of jumps, squats and push-ups). Other teachers have encouraged their students to boogie along to a two-minute dance video.

At Worcester's Midland Street School, students get two 15-minute blocks of recess, but sometimes teachers can also bring students to outdoor benches for silent reading or take a walk around the building, usually with a learning twist, like a hunt for an x, y or z, said Principal Michele M. Lodowsky.

"You know when breaks are needed," she said. Afterward, "Everyone can get back to learning."

As school begins this week and next, children will move from beaches and backyards to classrooms. As they do, the amount of time they spend outdoors during the first six hours of their day will in many cases shrink to just 30 minutes. It's a big change and is not without its critics.

The American Academy of Pediatrics published a policy statement this year called "The Crucial Role of Recess in School." It does not specify how much recess children need, but it notes the social, emotional, physical and cognitive importance of having a recess. Breaks, it states, should be regular, frequent and long enough "to allow the student to mentally decompress." Its research found that recess periods range from 20 to 60 minutes a day.

Some educators and parents find outdoor time so critical that they base an entire school around it, like the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs' "forest kindergarten," in which students spend three hours outdoors each day regardless of the weather.

Locally, however, the focus has been more modest. In 2011, the Worcester School Committee started requiring 30 minutes of recess at elementary schools, because not every student was getting that. Committee member Tracy O'Connell Novick, a former high school English teacher who took her students outside to reenact "Casey at the Bat," first realized the disparity in recesses when her children started attending two different schools.

Since the policy passed, she said, she has heard thanks from teachers and from parents, the latter noting "how much more sane their kids are when they get off the bus." The policy also armed parents with a way to push back if they learn their child didn't have recess.

"I think that we caught it before it entirely disappeared," Ms. Novick said.

Karin Valentine Goins, who has one daughter at Midland Street School and one who graduated from there, was among those who advocated for the policy. "Humans need a break," she said. "Movement wakes up your brain and refreshes your body."

She said students have more recess at Midland than they once did, but her older daughter, a seventh grader, does not get any in middle school. That's also an age when there's a "big drop-off in physical activity," she said.

She said recess across the district remains uneven. She has heard of students being told not to run at recess, for instance.

Both women believe there are still students in the city who do not always have recess. Ms. Goins noted that sometimes parents themselves contribute to the problem by not sending children to school with footwear and a coat that fit the weather.

Ms. Lodowsky noted that recess sometimes has drawbacks, such as when conflicts from the playground spill over into the classroom. "Those things need to be resolved before learning can take place," she said, but she also noted strategies to get students outside even if they're not behaving well. An individual might be asked to walk with a teacher outside during recess, she said as an example.

Advocates believe there is still work to be done on a national scale. Joan Almon, co-founder and director of programs for the Alliance for Childhood, which has an office in New York, said despite the fact that people have begun to value recess more over the last seven or eight years, some students are still going without, either because of weather or as a punishment. She also believes 30 minutes of recess isn't enough. Asked what would be ideal, she said probably an hour broken up over the course of the day; in Finland, she noted, teaching blocks are an hour long with 15 minutes of that given to indoor or outdoor recess.

She has seen positive signs though, such as the fact that while schools were built without playgrounds for a time, they're now being added. "I think the general movement for bringing play back has spilled over to the recess discussion," she said.

This fall, two Worcester schools — Wawecus Road and Flagg Street — have new playgrounds. Wawecus Road's has a novel addition: two upright vibraphones with beautiful, mellow tones and a row of durable drums. The school's neighbor, Hanover Insurance Group, funded the playground, which was conceived by parent Amy Nyman and supported by the school department and city.

"I can't wait for the kids to see," Prinicpal Joanna Loftus said Friday.

It will be different for middle and high school students. While Shrewsbury middle school students have outdoor recess, Worcester has no policy requiring it.

Parents who want to know more about how much recess their children will have this year should check with both the building principal and their child's teacher, Ms. Almon said. Sometimes the policy says one thing, and the practice is another. She once heard of a principal who told his teachers he would fine them for bringing children to recess. One teacher brought a $5 bill to the principal's office every morning as payment for taking her students to recess; eventually, his policy changed.

More commonly, parents' requests lead to change. "Parents have been quite effective," Ms. Almon said.